Accademic Supervisor and References

Hi! All. Having my own issue with a reference now.

My accademic supervisor who never responded to emails for ages, and had to be phoned/texted several times before I received a response (see other posts) is now not answering calls from my future employer re reference. He is Head of Dept. as well as my supervisor, and when I asked him for a reference he said absolutley no problem.

Now, I have gotten the job, which is well-paid and which we as a family really need. The employer has my reference from previous employment but want's one from the college as I am a newly qualified therapist. I thought everything was okay and they had gotten all my references. However, they telephoned yesterday evening to say they were withdrawing the job offer unless I got a reference from my supervisor. I have emailed the secretary of the Dept. to ask if anyone else would give me the reference, but I don't think they'll go against him. There is no reason for him not to give me a reference as I have been a 2:1 student all along, and I believe he has had excellent feedback from anywhere I worked as a trainee.

Help!! I'm so stressed out about this - I'm actuallly sick with worry over it.

elainem - at this stage Im just not sure what you think you are risking by going above this guy.

Its already costing you a fortune for academic supervision that he was supposed to do and isnt, and now a possible job is risked by his lack of communication.

Why not go above him directly, to the Dean or whoever is relevant, and explain the difficulties? You dont need to be nasty about it, but practical.

At the end of the day the person has duties as Dept Head and is not fulfilling them.

Absoltely agree with Truthseeker - there is nothing at all wrong with contacting the Dept, speak to the next chain up the ladder and explain that your employment offer may be withdrawn without this reference and outline all the attempts and requests you have made.

The insitution are in the business of training you to become qualified to WORK. I assure they will not mind. This is what you have studied for so be sure to seize your job offer securely. Best of luck.

Go in to this person's office, explain face to face and get them to do reference there and then. Call the secretary and find out when they are in.

Or ask another of your lecturers. A reference is no big deal, they are not exactly 'going against him'. The year administrator should be able to provide a reference - they need to confirm you did what you said you did, that's all.

If it is important to you, then physically go to the college and get someone to email a reference for you, citing lack of time for not having supervisor do the reference.

Agree with Plek Trum and Diziet.

Presenting yourself physically may be the best option at this stage seeing as emails, phonecalls, voicemails are being ignored.

This is your third thread on this issue (lack of communication with the academic supervisor), Im not sure what advice you expect to get tbh. There comes a point where your need to get this person to do their job outweighs any worries about making him upset or annoyed etc... In case its not obvious already - youre not that important to him! Its a blip in his radar if you make a bit of noise, not a life changing event - so stop worrying about upsetting him and go and make some noise.

Thanks everyone for your replies. Apparently, my supervisor has to give the reference. I'm going give him until the end of tomorrow and then I will have to approch the Dean.

I really appreciate all the advice as I'm completely stressed out by this and all the hassle with the supervision.